Tale of a Stepmom

Daily Prompt: Not Lemonade
When life gives you lemons … make something else. Tell us about a time you used an object or resolved a tricky situation in an orthodox way.

During childhood, I identified with stories of Cinderella, and Snow White. It wasn’t because of the fairy tale endings, but there was a step mother in the stories.

Our step mother brought with her, four kids from her first husband, when she married our (widower) father of five children. Our elder brother (considerably elder than us) was at PMA, Kakul, so that left us four at home.
With the addition of four other kids, we numbered eight.

A year later our step brother was born. We were thus nine children living in one house. With the addition of our baby brother, our step mother started showing her true colors.

Our father got a new job in another city. Meanwhile we were left at the mercies of our step mother.

Barely fifteen days later, step mom began her daily beatings of my youngest brother Salim. At first we thought Salim must have done something to irk or annoy her, but one day it went overboard.

One evening, while he was eating his food, she got up and start hitting at his head. My other brother Sher (three years younger to me), and I stood in front of her to save Salim from her blows. We got hit too. We were too innocent to hold her hands, or something like that. She wasn’t stopping.

Sher in desperation, rushed outside, and brought a neighbor with him. Seeing him, our step mother left her beatings. She told him her tales of the brats misbehaving with her.

The neighbor quietly told her, if she didn’t stop her daily ritual of beatings, and if he heard any of us crying, he was going to call the police.

Next day while we were at school, our step mother left with her own kids to join father. God knows what she must have told father (about us) when she left us alone at home.

Three months later, father had a heart attack. She didn’t accompany father’s body for burial at our ancestral village. I never saw her again.

She wanted us out of father’s life, and in the end we became fatherless too.

What a very sad story. Good for you and Sher for stepping in to protect your brother. And good for your neighbor. I hope your stepmom’s heart was eventually softened, for the sake of her children, and I hope today you are blessed.

A sad chapter from my life. My two younger brothers are no longer alive. After my father’s death, I didn’t see my stepmom again. My step brother from our father came to see us after his mother’s death. Probably she didn’t want us to meet. That was his only meeting with us, and he lives far away in Australia.
God has been kind to me. I am blessed with two children, and live with my son, after my husband’s death.

I would like awareness in men and women, when they marry for the second time, they should take into consideration their children’s well being. They should be careful in choosing to whom they get married. They shouldn’t think of their own desires only.

Oh my God. Your will to survive through everything life has thrown at you is inspirational, Sheen. Reading this, I feel I haven’t a clue about sadness or heartbreak.
You are a great, great lady. I am in awe!

Your writings are go graphic. I truly appreciate your account of your life with a step-mom. Even though people claim to want to help children, very few actually do. Think about this: what if you were half as tall as anyone else and had no money to take care of yourself? That is pretty much what a child feels even if he is older.

Ya subhann’Allah, what a difficult time for so many, it is hard to understand the cruelty and selfishness of people, but Allah never wrongs anyone, so you are brave and right to stand strong and clean, and leave the punishment to Allah. For sure Allah hears the cries of the weak and never leaves them unnoticed, we just don’t always understand Allah’s timing, sometimes. Alhamdulillah you are strong with Allah, my sister! ♥♥♥ ;^)